Varaprasad named BioSpectrum Person of 2007

BANGALORE, INDIA: Shantha Biotechnics managing director Varaprasad Reddy will receive the BioSpectrum Person of the Year 2007 award for pioneering a biotech wave and making a societal impact by launching life saving vaccines and therapeutics at affordable cost.

BioSpectrum, a CyberMedia Group publication, also announced that it will bestow Dr. Pushpa Mittra Bhargava, former director of Hyderabad-based Center for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) with Lifetime Achievement Award for his contribution to the development of life sciences.

Academician-turned-entrepreneur and co-founder of Strand Life Sciences, Dr. Vijay Chandru, chairman of Strand Life Sciences has bagged the Entrepreneur of the year award. The co-inventor of the novel hand held computer, Simputer, Dr Chandru also co-founded the Association of Biotech-Led Enterprises (ABLE) and serves on the executive council.

Bangalore-based Biocon's BIOMAb EGFR is a therapeutic monoclonal antibody-based drug for treating solid tumors of epithelial origin, such as head and neck cancers got the Product of the year.

The drug is the first of its kind to be clinically developed in India and the first anti-EGFR humanized monoclonal antibody for cancer available anywhere in the world. The product receives the award based on consistent response in clinical trials initiated both in India and globally.

Gujarat will receive the State of the Year for the progress it made in the field of Biotechnology.

An independent jury headed by M Ramaswami, managing director, Rasi Seeds, selected the winners. Other jury members included Dr Viloo Morawalla-Patell, CEO and founder of Avesthagenand, Dr M Radhakrishnan Pillai, director of Rajiv Gandhi Centre of Biotechnology, Trivandrum, and Dr Satish D. Ravetkar, senior director, Serum Institute, Pune.

The winners would receive the awards on December 21 at Bangalore.